Rick didn’t look at her, but he confirmed her question by nodding.
“You can’t be serious!” Steve shouted. “You of all people are going send Cassie in there?”
“The people accepting the babies and mothers aren’t going to the house, I told you that,” Rick snapped. “They’re too careful. Someone is dealing with a middleman. We need to find out who that is and then we hit both the house and then whoever’s in charge.” He stood and walked away from the table rubbing the back of his neck, then turned around. “I don’t like the idea at all, but I wasn’t about to ignore it, and I knew once she heard about it, Cassie would volunteer anyway. And you know as well as I do, Steve, that I couldn’t stop her. Believe me, I’ve thought of every reason under the sun to keep her out of it, but I think we all know she’s qualified – and too stubborn to stop her from participating. Right, Sassy?”
Cassie’s eyes were closed, but she answered, “Right as usual. No stopping me. I’m in. Period, end of discussion.”
“I don’t believe this, either,” Kevin spoke up. “If what you’re saying is true then anyone going there is at risk. And you want to send Cassie? Alone?”
“She won’t be alone.” Rick smirked. “You’re going with her, Daddy.”
When everyone in the room roared, “What?” at the same time, Rick looked calmly at them. Then he explained.
“The house accepts young fathers, too. Kevin and Cassie are young enough to pose as a scared couple who need a place to stay for a while. I can’t do it, I’m too old.” Rick’s smile wasn’t amused and no one laughed. “Right now’s the best time too, since she’s not that far along she can still move quickly. And, Kevin, you’ll be the one doing the sneaking out in the night to find out where these people are going. All Cassie’s going to do is keep her ears open and look scared. You think you can do that, pretty one?” he asked, looking at his wife.
“No problem,” Cassie answered. “Kevin, I trust that Rick knows what he’s doing. You don’t honestly think he’d send me in somewhere he thought I’d run into trouble do you?”
“I still don’t like it, Rick,” Steve insisted. “What if…”
“There’s no choice here, Steve,” Lori joined in. “I can’t think of anything worse than selling babies. We’ll be close enough to the shelter though, won’t we, Rick? I assume you weren’t letting Cassie and Kevin just drive off without backup?”
“We’ll be around.” Rick confirmed Lori’s assumption. He looked back at Cassie. “I said we’d go back to the beach house soon. You can even finish your milk and cookies.” He smiled slightly.
Cassie didn’t smile. She felt sick. Everything was happening too fast and her head was spinning. Standing, she nodded at Rick and the others before walking out of the room. She was halfway down the hall when someone grabbed her arm. It was Kevin.
“You don’t have to do this,” he said. “We can find someone else. Don’t let Rick make you feel responsible for helping us.”
Cassie put her hand on Kevin’s arm. “Rick’s not forcing me to do anything, Kev. I’m perfectly capable of masquerading as a single pregnant girl. And I trust Rick won’t let anything happen to me.” Looping her arm through Kevin’s, they went to Rick’s office. “And, I trust you, too. I wouldn’t do this with anyone but you. However, I think your biggest problem is going be explaining to Elena that you’re the father of my child.”
Kevin grinned and he moved to hug her.
“At least wait until she’s out of my sight before you start playing the concerned boyfriend, Mr. Williams,” Rick said, standing in the doorway.
“The concern is real, Mr. Jarrett,” Kevin said evenly and walked out.
* * * * *
Closing his office door behind them, Rick crossed to Cassie. “Did I do good? I was right, wasn’t I? You would have jumped into this anyway, wouldn’t you?”
“You have to ask?” Cassie said gently. “I was about to volunteer, but you beat me to the punch. Even if I wasn’t really pregnant, I’d find a way to do this.” She put her arms around Rick’s neck. “Or I’d do everything possible to get pregnant right away. And I’m sure you would have helped me, right?”
“I do what I can.” He grinned and kissed her. Smile fading he added, “We need to firm up plans, but we’ll leave soon. And don’t mention this to your father. I’m going to have enough trouble with Martin.”
“Who?” Cassie asked innocently. “Thank you, Rick. It means a lot to me you thinking I can do something besides turn state’s evidence.”
Rick pulled Cassie closer and brought her head to rest against his chest. “I’ve known that all along, Sass, and I’d give anything for you not to have to do this. But the thought of selling babies makes me…”
Cassie’s hand covered his mouth. “Me too,” she whispered. Rick took her hand and kissed it, then put his hand over her stomach. “He’ll move soon, I know it,” she said softly. “Just don’t let go of me.”
“Never,” he said, closing his eyes.
* * * * *
The next morning, in Rick’s office, Lori found Cassie at his desk. Rick had gone off in search of the others.
“I’m sorry for busting in on you,” Lori said, “but we need to have a little talk.”
“I don’t think I like your tone, Lor,” Cassie said flatly. “So unless you’re just concerned about how I slept, don’t start with me.”
Lori’s expression changed to surprise. “Don’t start with you? I never have, Cassie, but don’t press your luck. And don’t say this is none of my business, because if it involves Rick then it is my business.” Cassie opened her mouth, but was stopped by Lori holding up her hand to caution her from speaking. “I’m sorry. Let’s start over, okay?”
Cassie sighed and sat on the couch. “Start,” she said, then smiled slightly. “But smile when you say it.”
Lori did smile. “Okay, here it is—can you do this without getting yourself killed? Since Rick is the one who suggested you for the job if anything happens, we’ll lose him.”
“What do you mean you’ll lose him?” Cassie snapped, standing up. “Why don’t you just concentrate on Steve and leave Rick to me!” Lori’s mouth opened, but Cassie cut her off. “Oh God, I’m sorry, Lori. I didn’t mean that, please forgive me. It’s just that I was up all night thinking the same thing. You have no idea how scared I am, but it isn’t about doing this job. I’m not going into details, but Rick gave me something very special by handing this to me. Trust, mainly. He trusts me to be able to handle myself and to keep myself safe. You have no idea what that means to me. And by me accepting what he offered, it gave him something, too. It told him that I trust him to take care of me. I can’t fail this—for his sake as well as my own.”
Lori sat silently thinking, then moved to the couch. “You won’t fail, Rick has good judgment,” she smiled down at Cassie. “And I do concentrate on Steve, don’t you worry.”
“I know,” Cassie nodded. “Forgive me?”
“Nothing to forgive, hon,” Lori said softly and left the room.
After another short nap on Rick’s couch, Cassie found him along with Martin, Steve, Lori, Kevin and Elena in the conference room.
“Well, our guest of honor finally woke up,” Rick said.
Cassie sat next to Kevin across the table from Rick, Steve and Lori. She didn’t look at Lori but instead glanced sideways at Elena sitting on the other side of Kevin.
The girl smiled slightly, but it was clear she wasn’t happy with the upcoming events. “It’s not safe for you to do this, Cassie,” she said softly. “You’re putting your baby at risk. Let me do this, I can pretend and…”
“Elena, there’s no room for pretending,” Rick interjected. “There are real doctors in that building, they’d know you weren’t pregnant immediately. That’s why we’re using Cassie in the first place.”
“I still don’t like this,” Steve added. “Are you sure you can do this, Cass?”
Cassie’s eyes shot to Lori, but it was
apparent that Steve’s concern had nothing to do with the little talk she and Lori had earlier.
“I can do this just fine,” Cassie answered. “Why do men think pregnancy is a prelude to a woman losing all her good sense?”
“All right, don’t start,” Rick warned. “Listen up now. The kid gave me a number to reach him so I called him this morning. He says the house is an old Victorian right on the main street. That’s good because then people driving and walking by won’t be noticed as quickly. And, since there are many older buildings like that around, lots of people stop to take pictures and sketch the area.” Rick smirked in Lori’s direction. “You know how artists are. Anyway, Martin’s going to take pictures of the place so Lori can draw from them.”
“Just in case I want to invite someone to take a look at my sketches?” Lori smiled smartly at Rick.
“You don’t show anyone anything, my love,” Steve said.
Looking at Cassie, Rick explained, “Lori’s going to be near the house pretending to be sketching, but she’s really looking at the people going in and out. She’ll draw their faces so we can see if we recognize anyone.”
Kevin’s hand fell on the table loudly. “If you think you might recognize someone, what if they recognize Cassie or me first? All it would take would be for one person to have seen the news when Luther went to court. And I’m supposed to run out in the middle of the night following cars and leave her alone? This whole thing’s a bad idea.”
“Change of plans there,” Rick informed Kevin. “You stay with Cassie at night. If something’s going down, Steve or I will follow.”
“Wait a minute,” Steve jumped in. “I thought you and I were laying low until we got word from Kevin. You can’t stand around that house all day waiting.”
Rick’s head bent down. “I’ll be at the beach house during the day, but at night I’m staying near Cassie. That kid said up until now they’ve only taken the young women near their delivery date, but I’m not taking chances. Something goes wrong and they try to take her, I’m going be there.”
“And besides providing the doctors with a baby’s heartbeat to listen to, just what am I doing?” Cassie asked sarcastically.
“You and your boyfriend are just making friends at this point,” Rick said, ignoring her tone. “This may take a while so you can’t go in asking too many questions right away. After a couple weeks, you’ll know better where you should and shouldn’t go.” He grinned. “I assume you’ll make your way to the shouldn’t go area soon enough.” His expression became serious. “I’d like you to try and find a list of names and locations. Maybe we can reunite some of these babies with their mothers once we close the place down.”
“A couple weeks,” Cassie said absently. “Maybe even longer? Kevin’s going to feel this baby move before you do.” With a sad look at Rick she walked out of the room.
“Well,” Rick said, “that’s it until we get the pictures.” He looked at Kevin. “Why don’t you spend some quality time with Elena so you can get through the next few weeks without her.”
Kevin kept quiet, but the look on his face made it clear that he didn’t appreciate Rick’s attitude regarding Cassie or Elena. Taking Elena’s hand, Kevin left with her.
Rick shook his head and whistled. Steve’s forehead was knotted.
“What about you, Rick?” he asked, not hiding his sarcasm. “Are you going be able to get through this without Cassie?”
“I think Cassie and I have passed the puppy love stage,” Rick answered sharply.
“That’s not what he means, Richard!” Lori said, defending Steve. “We’ve spent months watching you worry about Cassie. Do you honestly think that she and you can do this?”
“She’s right, Jarrett,” Martin finally spoke up. “Cassie’s had no real experience with this kind of thing.”
“No she hasn’t,” Rick agreed. “But she’s well-trained and she’s got the best instincts of anyone I know. She knew Luther was scum from the beginning.”
“And she still stayed with him a long time, Rick,” Steve put in.
“I didn’t say she was psychic!” Rick hissed. “She didn’t know he would kill someone over her, but she did know to keep her guard up around him. Cassie has a good heart and if anyone can sniff out a good or bad soul, she can.”
“True,” Martin conceded, “she did marry you. All right then, Godspeed. But you better hope to hell her father never finds out about this. Or, he may just live up to the image of that actor he looks like and buy a forty-four Magnum.”
“Don’t worry, Daddy,” Lori chirped. “Steve and I will keep a close watch on these two stubborn Jarretts. Whether they like it or not.”
“And so will I,” Rick’s voice dropped to a whisper. “I can’t protect her if I let myself fall apart, don’t worry.”
Before giving any of them the chance to respond, Rick gathered the papers off the table and left the room.
Cassie stood in the stairwell waiting for Rick just as she had done months earlier when she’d first met him. Biting her fingernail and looking at the view, she wondered how she was going to get through the next few weeks without Rick. This assignment wasn’t supposed to happen. They were supposed to begin building their house by the river. And the thought of the baby growing enough to be felt from the outside and Rick not being there to feel it brought tears to her eyes.
“There better not be tears in those eyes,” Rick’s voice sounded behind her.
Cassie’s hand went immediately to her eyes and then she turned around and smiled. “No time for tears. Hold me.”
Rick was never one to follow orders, but this time he made an exception. He put his arms around her and closed his eyes. Cassie made a slight noise when she put her head on his shoulder, but that was the only sound she made.
* * * * *
When Martin returned from his picture-taking adventure, the group had gathered at the mansion. The mood was solemn, no one felt comfortable with their assigned tasks. Rick fought the feelings of doubt that tried to consume him. Cassie fought the fear of failing—not only the fear of being captured, but of sending Rick into hell if something happened to her. Kevin was uncomfortable thinking someone inside the house would recognize him or Cassie. Elena felt useless and therefore not happy. Steve was uneasy because he knew he had to let Lori be alone in the town most of the time in order for her to sketch the occupants of the house. Lori’s concern was mainly focused on Steve’s ability to keep Rick from moving too quickly in the hopes of getting Cassie out that much sooner.
All of them knew, though, that the real time for concern wouldn’t come until they actually had something to work with such as a car to follow or a name to trace.
Martin walked into the room interrupting everyone’s private thoughts. “Okay, here you go, Lori,” he said handing her the pictures. “As you can see you’ll have a lot to draw.”
Rick looked over Lori’s shoulder at the picture of the house. “It’s a big place, you two should be comfortable at least. Lori, how much time do you need to sketch these out?”
“I’ll start now and I’ll have several done by morning,” she answered confidently.
“Good, any questions?” Rick asked looking around the room.
Cassie raised her hand. “Can we go there tonight instead of waiting a couple days?”
“Why tonight?” Rick looked surprised.
“I keep thinking that maybe there’s some poor girl about to go into labor and there won’t be anyone nearby to help her. If we leave tonight, then Kevin and I can be in place by tomorrow morning.”
Rick thought for a moment then nodded. “It’s too late tonight, but early morning is fine. This whole operation is based on a waiting game anyway so I guess it doesn’t matter where we wait.”
“One more thing, husband dear,” Cassie said calmly. “I think we should bring Elena.”
Seeing his and Kevin’s mouths about to open, Cassie held up her hand. “I want her there because she’ll get you to take care of yoursel
f, Rick.” Cassie winked at Elena, who was smiling at her.
Rick looked sideways at Kevin and then back to Cassie. Leaning close to his wife, he whispered, “Cassie, I’m going to be sleeping during the day so I can be at the house at night in case you need me. What am I supposed to do with Elena?”
“Don’t do anything with Elena,” Kevin said smugly. “See, Mr. Jarrett, you don’t like the inference that someone’s got ulterior motives regarding your lady, why do you think anyone else would?”
“Little boys to the end,” Lori observed. “I think bringing Elena is a good idea. Cassie’s right, if she can keep Rick in line, then Steve and I can have a break now and then.” She smiled sweetly at Rick’s perturbed expression.
“How can you joke at this?” Kevin asked angrily. “I still don’t like this whole idea. Cassie, no one will think badly of you if you change your mind. Maybe we should wait awhile and let her prepare herself more. She’s not going into this alone, she’s bringing a baby into this too, remember?”
“No, Kevin, I forgot,” Rick said sarcastically. “The only reason this works now with Cassie is because she’s not very desirable.” All eyes, including Cassie’s, turned to Rick. Laughing, he explained. “Because she’s not alone, she has a boyfriend with her. And because she isn’t far enough along in her pregnancy for them to think too much about her yet.” His expression changed and he looked at Cassie. “However, if you were further along, this never would have involved you. So, if everyone knows what they’re doing, let’s hit the hay.”
An audible mumble of agreement meant the meeting ended. So did the day.
* * * * *
Cassie gasped, waking Rick instantly.
“What’s wrong?” he asked putting his hands on her shoulders.
“Bad dream.” Cassie’s voice was shaky. “It’s almost time to get up anyway.”
“Are you having second thoughts about doing this, Sass?”
“And third and fourth thoughts.” Cassie touched her stomach. “But I’m still doing it. I keep seeing someone taking a baby away from a young girl and…”
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